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Friday, July 07, 2017

Lynx could be reintroduced to Northumberland this year

After an absence of 1,300 years, the lynx could be back in UK forests by the end of 2017. The Lynx UK Trust has announced it will apply for a trial reintroduction for six lynx into the Kielder forest, Northumberland, following a two-year consultation process with local stakeholders.

The secretive cat can grow to 1.5m in length and feeds almost exclusively by ambushing deer. Attacks on humans are unknown, but it was hunted to extinction for its fur in the UK. The Kielder forest was chosen by the trust from five possible sites, due to its abundance of deer, large forest area and the absence of major roads.

As the Guardian goes on to admit, the idea is controversial locally.

But who could not be moved by the words of Dr Paul O’Donoghue, chief scientific adviser to the Lynx UK Trust and expert adviser to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature?

He says:

"Lynx belong here as much as hedgehogs, badgers, robins, blackbirds - they are an intrinsic part of the UK environment. There is a moral obligation. We killed every single last one of them for the fur trade, that’s a wrong we have to right."